Apple’s OS X Lion and iOS Patent Details Scrollable Menus & Toolbars

A new European patent filled by Apple describes what appear to be major changes to the dock and hierarchical menus with a new scrollable menu and toolbar system as shown in the image above. The feature outlined in the patent is essentially a replacement for hierarchical lists and menus that provides a scrollable interface controllable via multitouch gestures.

As ComputerWorld’s Jonny Evans reports, the new scrollable menus would adapt to users and change depending on what gestures are invoked,

“Depending on where you are (and, presumably, which gestures you may use) you will be presented with different options: File, Save and Print, for example, or key application-specific drawing tools, for example.”

ComputerWorld goes on to describe how the new scrollable menus will adapt to the users needs and app currently being used saying, “The new menu patent also offers you a range of different menu behaviors — some menus let you select from a circle of options, others act like tickertape with a limited number of menus inside.”